Holidays are tiring. I always feel like I need a week off to recover from holidays.

In Madrid we are enjoying 40C during day time and 34C overnight.

Not to talk about how amazing is to feel your shoe soles literally melting on the pavement while you try to squeeze your sweaty body in the little shadow the bus stop produces.

Peach & Passion Fruit Tarte Tatin

Just 1 day left in the countdown to our summer holidays! whoop whoop!

I always get really stressed the week before travelling, but I've been so busy at work this week I've had no time to worry about anything. Which is good because I haven't been over worrying but is also terrible, because I've left everything to the very last minute.

I hate packing. I really do hate it.

Trying to pick and choose out of the millions of things at home which ones I'm  going to take requires a level of patience I unfortunately lack of.

Salt Crusted Pork Roast

Just one week to be on holidays... Yay!!! And it´s really, really, really starting to smell like summer. As the days get warmer and longer, we try to stay out and about as much as we can. And one of our favourite things to do is pack our dinner and go to the park for a picnic.

Our family picnics are always an adventure because we make them spontaneous. We never know when or where they will take place.

But in all honesty, it doesn’t take much to have us thinking about picnics. A hint of blue sky and a ray of sunshine and there we are packing our picnic baskets.

Vanilla & Blueberry Mini Brandy Cakes

My husband never gets anywhere on time. I utterly, deeply love him. But he cannot be on time almost for anything. 

On his defense I should say is normally not his fault either. "I lost track of the time" is the usual explanation. "Why didn't you text me?" "Because I was actually on my way but I had to change my shirt 3 times and stop to do my laces twice, when I remembered something I forgot, I then found a friend and chatted for a while, and when I was just almost there, I saw a lovely butterfly and, as I thought I still had some minutes left, I sat on a bench to admire it's beautiful wings, when suddenly I remembered how amazing was that wine we drunk yesterday and I decided to stop for a minute to write the name down, and then just walked straight here."

Superhealthy Courgette Pizza Crust

Last week I run my first muddy run with my dearest friend Paula in support to Cancer Research UK. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever done, and one of the trickiest at the same time. While the experience was awesome enough to have me coming back for more, I found it emotionally a bit upsetting.

When I was 20, I hardly knew anyone with cancer. My grandma had died of it, but that was years ago when I was much younger and I didn’t know much about it. Fast forward 10 years and it’s an entirely different matter.

Broccoli & Cheese Roulade

That’s it. I’m absolutely fed up of bad news. The last couple of weeks I’ve been battling with this completely overwhelming nonsense feeling and I’ve had enough. ENOUGH.

The entire world seems to have gone mad and you know what? That is a train I’m going to lose.

For this reason, this week I’ve made a resolution. A summer one. Maybe because I’m terrible with the New Year’s ones. But this time, I’m completely determined: I’m going to enjoy life. So simple and so difficult to accomplish at the same time that I’ve set up a feasible target. I’m not going to worry about anything but what next I’m doing to have fun for a week. A whole week of fun and joy.

Pear & Brandy Tarte Tatin

On Monday evening I went to bed, as every evening, sheltered by the security of feeling at home. I have been quite busy at work, so I fell asleep thinking in all the stuff I would need to deal with in the morning. Before going to bed, I carefully prepared my bag, the boys bags, lunch boxes, documents, laptop, mobile and everything we needed the following morning.

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was no longer the owner of any of those things.

I also was no longer in possession of my driving licence, my passport, my cards, all of my digital photos and songs, my home keys and that amazing My Neibour Totoro pencil case that I loved.